The Henderson Family: Oh Whoa! What a Day!

Friday, April 2, 2010

Oh Whoa! What a Day!

Not kidding. We have had a very long day! I've been putting off taking the girls to the zoo for some time now. Well, since it's Spring Break and the weather today was supposed to be gorgeous, I figured, today is the day! I had a feeling it would be pretty packed--for the two reasons mentioned above. Well, we get on the road just a little after 10am. Keep in mind the zoo is about a 45 minute drive most days. Around 12:30 we were finally turning into the zoo parking lot. Nope, no road construction...just THAT MANY PEOPLE GOING TO THE ZOO!!! It took us two hours to drive less than 5 miles. I should have taken that as a huge red flag, but the girls kept asking me to not turn around. And, since they were behaving so well, I wanted to at least try. Thankfully, Rowe napped most of the trip. As we got to the gate (for parking), the lady told me, "Just so you are aware, there may not be any parking. You can try to find someone leaving the zoo and their parking space, or do a u-turn here." Since we have a membership, and have waited this long, what's to lose, right? Well, another half hour was wasted driving through the parking lot. People were parked like complete idiots, trapping other cars in, parking in the middle of the isles, etc. I finally told the girls I was throwing in the towel. Even if we did find parking, the zoo was so beyond packed it made me very nervous to bring in three kids solo--one could easily get lost in the shuffle, and we wouldn't really be able to enjoy much.

So, we turned around and started heading out. Well, at that point, they actually closed off the entry to the parking garage, no one else allowed in. So, we headed back home, and I decided to try a new challenge. A restaurant with three kids with no help. They did AMAZING!!! We had some great food and then the girls had ice cream sundaes...Mmm, Mmm! I was so impressed and proud. Girls didn't test my patience once--to the zoo, at the restaurant, or on the way home.

After getting home, we played with the neighbors for a while, climb some trees, played some fun outdoor games, had a popsicle, and then we headed to the "yellow park" in our subdivision. We played there for a while, came back home to some more playing with the neighbors, dinner and out for some more playtime. As I type this, all three blond-hair, blue-eyed beauties are sleeping peacefully. Despite an upset in our plans, we had a very long, but very fun day!

Taking a break at Max&Ermas